Today I worked on team "Trojan" formerly known as team "Testosterone". They were working at a site in Haiti, that by Haitian standards is actually in a nice neighborhood. The house was a 4 bedroom plus a "living area". The house had over 4 feet of mud in it. The mud was actually quite nice to shovel, which is a change. I shoveled all day, except for the 20 minutes that I did wheel barrow runs. The guys literally run with their wheel barrows, I chose just to walk mine. Not sure what the hurry was...must be the testosterone the guys have. I wish I had more to say about the day, but really all I can say is that I shoveled LOTS of mud. We came back and headed down to speakerman for a cold one and came back for dinner.
The situation here in Haiti, finally caught up with me tonight. After dinner I came upstairs to get my water bottle and came across some folks huddled around one of the other volunteers. He was having a seizure. Seeing that, in combination with being tired and being overwhelmed with feelings about Haiti I started crying. I have been told it happens here to everyone! I was upset earlier in the day when a couple of Haitian guys were watching me shovel mud through a window and telling me they loved me. My personal view of the culture here is that it is lazy. I am not sure if that is a result of the fact they have nothing or a cause of why they have nothing or some combination thereof. I just don't understand why they locals do not want to pitch in to help but stand around and watch the "blancs" work. I would like to believe that we are showing them what is possible, with a little hard work and hope that they would help one another out after we leave. Some of our local volunteers really are hard workers, but I don't see them making that much of an impact on their community. Maybe I am just too far removed. Ok, enough about my rambling.
Tomorrow is Friday, wow where did the time go. I can't believe I leave here on Monday. Where has the time gone? I volunteered to do house cleaning in the morning and then go out mudding in the afternoon. Not sure what Saturday will bring but I know one of the local volunteers asked a few of us to come and speak at a school that he works with. They teach English and French there so I can give a speech in English...not sure what I will talk about. If you have ideas send them to me at cwobschallmillner@yahoo.com. Then Sunday is our off day. We had been talking about a trip to the beach...there is a decent one within about an hour of this place. I would love to spend one of my last days on the beach!
Hope everyone is well and to those back in MN enjoying the snow! I just checked the weather and it looks like you are getting more snow.
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